Ikey Doherty has announced the availability of the third alpha release of SolusOS 2, a Debian-based Linux distribution featuring a highly tweaked GNOME 3.4 desktop: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 2 alpha 3. This release uses the GNOME Classic Desktop Environment 3.4 (not fallback), which is heavily tweaked to behave and look the same as GNOME 2. Please note that this is a development release and is not intended for use on production machines. What's different about SolusOS' GNOME? In SolusOS 2 we will be using GNOME 3.4, which in its current state features a largely unusable fallback mode. We decided to patch various parts of GNOME to make our implementation look and act identically to our GNOME 2 setup seen in SolusOS 1. This has been done in a way that will ensure 100% upstream compatibility." Read the full release announcement for a list of main packages and known issues. Download: SolusOS-2-A3.iso (945MB, MD5).

SolusOS is a beginner-friendly desktop Linux distribution based on the latest stable release of Debian GNU/Linux. It features the GNOME 2 desktop, a good selection of default applications for everyday tasks, updated software applications from Debian "backports" and the project's own repositories, a complete set of multimedia plugins, a custom GNOME menu, and an intuitive graphical installer.

Ikey Doherty has announced the availability of the ninth alpha release of SolusOS 2, a desktop Linux distribution that "mixes innovation with old ideals": "I am pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 2 alpha 9. Please note that this is intended for developers and testers to give us early feedback on the distribution. Consequently this should not be used in production environments. Alpha 9 comes with the 3.11 kernel using LZ4 compression, Xfce 4.10, Thunar 1.6.3, Firefox 24.0b9, glibc 2.17, GLib 2.37.3, and many other goodies. We've completely changed the artwork to be more in tune with the SolusOS look. 155 commits have been made to the source repository since the release of alpha 8. Of those commits, 25 were new packages. The root account has now also been disabled by default, as the installer adds a sudo user to the system." Read the detailed release announcement for further information and screenshots. Download: SolusOS2-a9-x86.iso (652MB, MD5).

Ikey Doherty today announced the eighth alpha build of SolusOS 2, a distribution with the majority of software in the repositories being entirely "vanilla": "Please note that this is intended for developers and testers, to give us early feedback on the distribution. This is not an installable image and should not be used in production environments. What's new in SolusOS 2 alpha 8? SolusOS 2 is an entirely new Linux distribution. Whereas SolusOS 1 followed the Debian's stable branch, SolusOS 2 has been created entirely from scratch. This image is directly bootable on hardware without virtualisation, and is distributed as a live CD hybrid ISO image. It is recommended that you use dd to write the image directly to a USB stick for better performance. In this release we have decided to temporarily use Xfce, to accelerate the development process of the base system." Check out the comprehensive release announcement for more information including a quick guide to using PiSi, a brief package list, the recommended option for using the ISO image, and the credentials to log into the system. Download: SolusOS2-a8-x86.iso (608MB, MD5).

Ikey Doherty has announced the release of SolusOS 1.3, a new maintenance update of the project's Debian-based desktop Linux distribution with GNOME 2: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 1.3 'Eveline'. This is strictly a maintenance release, and includes base system adjustments and updates not present in the 1.2 release. This release is available in the following architectures: x86, x86 with PAE, amd64. What's new? Between the 1.2 release and this release, there have been over 300 MB in package updates. This ISO image is fully up to date and includes (but is not limited to) the following software versions: Firefox 18.0.2 (19.0 will be provided when released), Thunderbird 17.0, Linux kernel 3.3.6, GNOME 2.30, sudo 1.8.5, ufw 0.31, SolusCC 1.3. The GConf defaults were totally redone, removing the duplicate Cardapio issue. Firefox is now the default web browser." Read the complete release announcement for further information and screenshots. Download: SolusOS-amd64-1-3.iso (995MB, MD5).

The seventh alpha of SolusOS 2 has been released for testing. SolusOS is a Debian-based distribution project that has recently forked the GNOME 3 Fallback mode into a brand-new Consort desktop environment. From the release announcement: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 2 Alpha 7. This release is intended to demonstrate the Consort desktop, which will be the flagship desktop of SolusOS 2. Please note that this is an alpha release and should not be used in a production environment. Currently only the 32-bit PAE ISO image is available for testing. New features and addressed issues: Consortium (Metacity fork) now has side-by-side window tiling; issues with 'shadow trails' and 'latent shadow boxes' left behind by tool tips, DND icons and menus are gone; Consort Panel is now fully usable; gnome-applets has also been forked into consort-applets to undergo active development...." Download: SolusOS-2-A7.iso (995MB, MD5, torrent).

Ikey Doherty has announced the availability of the sixth alpha release of SolusOS 2, a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution with a custom desktop environment derived from GNOME 3.4: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 2 Alpha 6. This release is intended to demonstrate the potential of the new desktop environment being developed for SolusOS 2. Please note that this is an alpha release and should not be used in a production environment. Currently only the 32-bit PAE ISO image is available for testing. Brief overview of software versions: Firefox 18.0, Thunderbird 17.0.2, LibreOffice 3.6.4, Linux kernel 3.3.6, Athena 1.0, SolusOS desktop environment (GNOME 3.4-based). Many new applications are available in the software repository. In this release we are showcasing the new desktop environment for SolusOS 2. It is originally based on GNOME 3.4 yet does not feature GNOME Shell." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details and screenshots. Download: SolusOS-2-A6.iso (1,001MB, MD5).

Ikey Doherty has announced the release of SolusOS 1.2 "Legacy" edition, a Debian-based desktop Linux distribution with GNOME 2, released to address the needs of users with certain problematic hardware: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 1.2 Legacy. This is a maintenance release for the Eveline 1.x series. You can now download for 32-bit PAE or non-PAE, or 64-bit computers. This legacy release brings support for users of older chipsets or problematic hardware (such as nForce, Broadcom, etc.). Brief overview of software versions: Firefox 15.0, Thunderbird 15.0, LibreOffice 3.6.0, Linux kernel 3.0, iptables 1.4.8, ufw 0.31.1, hplip 3.12, VLC 2.0.1, Pidgin 2.10, GNOME 2.30. Many new applications are available in the software repository." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information. Download: SolusOS-x86-1-2-legacy.iso (994MB, MD5) SolusOS-amd64-1-2-legacy.iso (987MB, MD5).

Ikey Doherty has announced the release of SolusOS 1.2, a beginner-friendly desktop Linux distribution based on the latest stable release of Debian GNU/Linux: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 1.2. This is a maintenance release for the 'Eveline' 1.x series. This release brings many fixes and updates to SolusOS 1, including better printer, GPU and Bluetooth support. Brief overview of software versions Firefox 14.0.1, Thunderbird 14.0, LibreOffice 3.6.0, Linux kernel 3.3.6, iptables 1.4.8, ufw 0.31.1, hplip 3.12, GNOME 2.30. Many new applications are available in the software repository. The main reason for an updated ISO image is so that users do not have to download hundreds of megabytes in updates for a new install of 'Eveline'." Here is the full release announcement. Download: SolusOS-x86-1-2.iso (995MB, MD5), SolusOS-amd64-1-2.iso (988MB, MD5).

Ikey Doherty has announced that the fifth alpha release of SolusOS 2, a Debian-based desktop distribution, is ready for testing: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 2 alpha 5. This release uses the GNOME Classic desktop environment 3.4 (not fallback), which is heavily tweaked to behave and look the same as GNOME 2. What's new? This time we've gone all out to give you the best looking GNOME desktop we can, and it's increasingly difficult to tell the difference between our GNOME Classic and GNOME 2. We've gone to great lengths to improve the overall look and feel of the desktop whilst enhancing usability at the same time. Included software: Linux kernel 3.3.6, LibreOffice 3.5.4, Firefox and Thunderbird 13.0.1, Adobe Flash 11.2.202.235, VLC 2.0.1, Nautilus 3.4.2...." Here is the full release announcement with a handful of screenshots. Interested testers can download the live DVD image from here: SolusOS-2-A5.iso (989MB, MD5, torrent).

Ikey Doherty has announced the release of SolusOS 1.1, a desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's stable branch but with a newer kernel and up-to-date software packages: "The SolusOS team is pleased to announce the release of SolusOS 1.1. This release brings greater hardware support and newer application versions, as well as support for hybrid GPUs, such as the NVIDIA Optimus. A new 3.3.6 kernel is at its core with the BFS patch, alongside the GNOME 2.30 desktop environment. Many new application versions are present. Brief overview of software versions: Firefox 12.0, Thunderbird 12.0.1, LibreOffice 3.5.4, OpenShot 1.4.2, VLC 2.0.1.... The 1.1 series, although based on the 'Eveline' repositories, is to be maintained separately from the 1.0 series." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details. Download: SolusOS-x86-1-1.iso (978MB, MD5, torrent), SolusOS-AMD64-1-1.iso (994MB, MD5, torrent).

Ikey Doherty has announced the release of SolusOS 1, an inaugural stable release of the project's desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's "stable" branch featuring the GNOME 2 desktop, but also an updated kernel and applications: "I am pleased to announce the final release of SolusOS 'Eveline' 32-bit edition. All issues have now been corrected and installing from a live USB stick is now possible, via dd or UNetbootin. SolusOS is based on Debian 'stable' and features recent applications, multimedia and will automatically install proprietary graphics drivers if you wish. Brief overview of software versions: Firefox 12.0, Thunderbird 12.0.1, LibreOffice 3.5.3.2, Linux kernel 3.0.0 (with BFS, PAE, preempt), GNOME 2.30, OpenShot 1.4.2, Nautilus Elementary, PlayOnLinux 4.0.18, VLC 2.0.1, FirstRunWizard 0.8. Many new applications are available in the software repository." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information. Download: SolusOS-1.iso (983MB, MD5).

Ikey Doherty, the founder and lead developer of SolusOS and the original creator of the "Debian" edition of Linux Mint, has announced the availability of the fourth release candidate for SolusOS 1: "I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of SolusOS 'Eveline' release candidate 4. Many new features, fixes, and software versions have made their way into RC4. Important issues were addressed in this release, namely the issue involving a missing 'build' symbolic link that caused kernel module compilation to fail. This mainly affected VirtualBox and NVIDIA users. The FirstRunWizard has also now been rectified, allowing AMD/ATI users to automatically install the proprietary graphics driver. We've also included a whole suite of new application versions - Firefox 12.0, Thunderbird 12.0.1, LibreOffice 3.5.3, Minitube 1.7, Flash 11.2.202.233, VLC 2.0.1." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional notes. Download: SolusOS-RC4.iso (968MB, MD5).